Speeches by White.

“Thank you. I think we are okay. I agree with you that we need to make more investment in this. Of course I am not going to come here and make a huge commitment about our fiscal investment on this today. You have been around this place for far longer and you that that would be an ill thought through decision. We need to…”

“When we know we will report to the Committee. As soon as possible.”

“I am Katie White. I am the Climate Minister.”

“Chair, if I can clarify, the criticism is towards the Government and not towards the UNFCCC process?”

“In terms of—”

“I think that that is an unfair challenge. We have put ourselves right at the heart of the agenda again. Britain, at the end of the last Government was certainly not at the heart of the negotiating table. There has been progress on forests. The Forest and Climate Leaders’ Partnership is something that we have been worki…”

“There was always going to be robust discussions, but we want to make sure that we are balancing that. However, your wider point on energy security being part of the mix is absolutely crucial and is a core part of our agenda. I also launched a climate security taskforce the week before last, which I am doing with the Se…”

“Excellent question. I will start off and then I might hand over to my colleague. Thank you for your leadership on this agenda over the last couple of decades—I am trying to remember how long ago this is. Same page, a little while ago. I was not at the COPs as much when we were in opposition, so the officials and Rachel…”

“I will start off, but Matt or Rachel may want to come in as well. Absolutely. I know from your constituency that you are embedded in the nuclear sector, which has had a revival under this Government, which is fantastic. For instance on small modular reactors, we have the deal now with Sweden, which is great, and we are…”

“Yes. Matt, do you want to step in on the country action plans?”

“On any trade agreement on international trade, there is clearly a quid pro quo. We are engaging in a deal with countries and we are always looking at how to balance that most effectively to protect our interests but gain access to other markets. I am fully aware of the growing interest in ISDS. We did, as a Government,…”

“I think it is about balancing risk at all times but on each free trade agreement we ensure that we look at what the risks are around any exposure, as you would expect us to do. We are looking and there are different sections that we can write to the Committee about how we have managed on each of them. As I say, it is a…”

“We are exploring options as part of these wider conversations but I do not want to give the Committee the sense that we are at the brink. We are at the beginning of these conversations. For anybody who has had the pleasure of going to the UNFCCC and seen the complication of it, adding the WTO with the UNFCCC is not nec…”

“Sorry, just to clarify, are you talking about in the UK context?”

“I will have the pleasure of going to the LGA conference tomorrow in Bournemouth, but that is to chair a group working with councils across the country and from across political parties to make sure that they are key to being involved in policymaking. All of us know that our communities and our constituents will do thin…”

“No.”

“There was a climate change assembly and, forgive me, I cannot remember exactly what year it was. It was probably five or six years ago, 2019, and then we had the people’s assembly on nature as well. I think it was really helpful. It is interesting, I met with the Korean delegation the other day and they have just got a…”

“The climate emergency declarations were really useful at the time in moving forward and almost raising an alarm that people and communities were concerned and committed to doing that. I think we are now more in a delivery phase, and different councils are doing that in different ways. We want to strike the balance of l…”

“It is a hefty report, so they are working through that at the moment and, as ever with reports from the Committee on Climate Change, the Government will issue their response. I do not want to speak on behalf of DEFRA and I do not think they have come to their conclusion of what bits of that advice they will take. We ha…”

“I think we feel confident we have improved the position. I do not want to pre-empt any outcome but we have definitely made inroads on this and we will continue to endeavour to do that. As Rachel said, having these special representatives has been pretty game changing from my position.”